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Jesuit college is top of the class

GONZAGA, the college in south Dublin founded by the Jesuits, was Ireland’s best-performing secondary school last year, sending almost 95% of its Leaving Certificate class to university.

Fee-paying schools again dominate the third annual Sunday Times Parent Power guide, which rates Ireland’s top 400 schools on how many students they sent to university last year.

Although two of the top three places nationally are filled by non fee-paying schools, 13 of the top 20 require fees for attendance. More than a third of the top 100 places were filled by schools charging fees of between €1,000 and €14,000 annually. One that bucked the trend was St Laurence College in Loughlinstown, Dublin. Run by the Marianist order, the non-fee-paying school came second nationally by sending more than 92% of its pupils to one of Ireland’s nine universities.

Anne McCarry, the deputy principal at St Laurence, said the college’s support network for